Thursday, 24 January 2013

Cameron - dare call it treason

David Cameron's final revelation of his European policy reveals him to be unpatriotic, stupid and purely focused on his personal survival. Whereas Harold Macmillan merely sacked his colleagues on the Night of the Long Knives as part of a drowning Tory government, Cameron is prepared to sacrifice the national interest, the economy and cultural cohesion to propitiate his cretinous Europhobic backbenches and the frothing loons of UKIP.

To announce that there will be an "in-out" referendum in 2017, following an unspecified period of opting out of European process and policy development is not the act of a calculating, intelligent national leader. This condemns Britain to sitting on the sidelines while the remaining members of the EU, led by individuals with individual IQs higher than the entire complement of Tory Cabinet Ministers aggregated, address issues and develop further proposals around issues that impact upon our daily lives. For those within the UK who have spent time actually understanding how Europe works and how it needs to be worked with, this is a kick in the teeth. For manufacturing and services this condemns Britain to becoming even more peripheral.

If Labour had carried out such a policy, then the Tory press would have lined up to claim that this was a betrayal of the national interest. The same applies in reverse - this is treachery untainted by any form of justification or necessity. Instead it is the act of a desperate, unprincipled individual who needs to be hounded from office at the next General Election.

Indeed, it is now highly satisfying to note that Cameron and Boris are joining with other Cro-Magnons such as Bob Crow in opposing EU.

This resembles nothing so much as the unravelling of the Tories in the 1990s. Major, however, was a titan compared to this bunch of spivs and cronies. Cameron is scared that a leadership challenge will be triggered by the foaming backwoods lunatics who have still failed to realise that the 2010 election did not result in a resounding victory for their brand of Neanderthal politics. Add to this the alleged dynamism of his new MPs who have failed to grasp that the neo-cons are on the defensive everywhere, and we have a Prime Minister whose instinct is purely to save his own worthless skin.

In the short-term, this will probably result in the Tories having a small bounce in the polls. In the long-term it will not resonate alongside the economy, public services and the amoral capitalism that they venerate.

Cameron and the Europhobes rant on about the damage that being part of a major trading and political group does to their free enterprise nirvana, and the idea that human rights, human dignity and the primacy of the citizen should ever take root. This is 19th century politics - the contempt for the majority, promoting inequality and the inviolate nature of corporate crooks and fellow-travellers could be straight out of the Victorian history textbooks. Being governed by a group of people who want to go back to the days of Empire is a sick joke.

Clegg, for once, is right - four years of drift to achieve nothing is a suicidal policy. He needs to wake up, and give the public a clear message that the progressive centre, the left and those on the right who are capable of walking and breathing at the same time will be able to come together in 2015 to provide a less hopeless, more patriotic narrative. The indications are that Labour are aware of this - let's hope that this is a wake-up call for all of us who wish not merely to stay in the modern world but contribute to progress for the whole country.